Conference a go in KZN

Despite mounting tension and a court challenge, the ANC head office has given the green light for the KwaZulu-Natal ANC to hold its elective provincial conference.

The party yesterday set June 8-10 as the date for the conference in which a new provincial executive committee (PEC) is expected to be elected. The new leadership would replace the former PEC that was disbanded by Luthuli House after the Pietermaritzburg High Court declared its 2015 conference and its outcomes null, void and unlawful.

ANC secretary-general Ace Magashule said it’s all systems go for the KwaZulu-Natal conference: six regions had gone to elective regional conferences and almost eight out of 11 regions were in good standing.

He acknowledged problems raised by members were around gate-keeping, marginalisation of certain members and other disputes – some of which the national dispute resolution committee had addressed.

The party would deploy NEC members at branches throughout the province to attend to issues and ensure smooth processes.

He said the party was urging its regional and provincial structures whose mandates had expired or were about to expire, to convene their conferences before the end of July. These conferences must be conducted in a spirit of inclusivity, which meant all factions must be included in the conference and its outcomes.

Magashule said disunity, factionalism and lobby groupings should stop.

“Anyone found or reported to be participating actively in such activities will be attended to through the relevant structures charged with enforcing and upholding discipline,” he said.

This is contrary to claims by some members that there was still membership manipulation and that some party members were sidelined leading to the conference. They claimed their complaints had not been attended to by the party.

Disgruntled members went on the rampage this week saying their names did not appear on the list originally submitted for the conference. There had been reports of members clashing amid claims of gate-keeping and manipulation of processes leading up to the provincial conference.